• It was night, I was walking down the street to the taco shop at 3 AM because it was the only thing that was open. I worked a night shift and I had been selected to grab the food as usual. It wasn't far but it was cold. For some reason, the street lights were out, or at least most of them. I could see the dimly lit taco shop in the distance. I was tired, I hadn't had much sleep yesterday and having been up for nearly 24 hours was taking its toll on me.

    "Only three hours left then I can sleep" I chanted to myself as I entered the taco shop. I placed my order and after about 10 minutes of waiting I had three big bags of greasy food in my arms. I lifted the bags up and made my way out of the shop.

    As I lugged my way to the sidewalk I felt a little more tired than I had realized. My vision started to blur as I entered the street. I was J walking a 6 lane road but it was late so there were no cars. As I hit the mid drift I had to stop and catch my breath. My strength was waning, I felt like I had never felt before, as if my muscles were just refused to go on.

    Slapping myself awake again I took a deep breath and tried to cross the other side, but about halfway I dropped a bag. "s**t..." I muttered as I clumsily leaned over to grab the bag.

    I don't remember what happened, never did, but I saw a bright light and then a sharp pain, and then blackness. An eternal blackness, I couldn't escape. I wasn't dead because I was still conscious of my existence, but I wasn't alive either. I could feel my arms and legs but I could not see them. I stretched out in the darkness but felt nothing. I screamed and my voice echoed but there was no reply.

    It felt like days, muttering into the darkness before I began to lose my mind. Was I in hell? Was this eternal void, this endless lonely darkness... hell?

    No... this I could not accept, lashing out I began to tear, to struggle to rip. I pulled at my skin, my hair, my eyes... I lashed out at everything screaming, howling into the darkness when I saw it... a faint light off in the distance. I reached for it with all my might, I strained for it like I was climbing up the side of a rocky mountainside. Every inch I dragged myself closer until the light covered me.

    As it did I felt what could be called a vacuum, something pulling me at extreme speeds and as I breached into the light and I was blind once more but this time by the light. Now... a new sensation overcame me...

    My flesh burned like fire, every inch of my body as if I were covered in lava. I screamed, but this time it was different, my screams were not an echo in the dark, this time I could feel the ground below me, this time I could feel my voice resonate and cause the earth to tremble beneath me.

    But the pain did not stop, the burning, fiery agony! I screamed and my howls caused the earth to tremble, the screams caused the air to shake. I could feel now cool air touching the burning flesh as I roared in pain, the skies parting from my suffering.

    But now my screams were no longer the only things I could hear. Little voices, I could hear them between my gasps for air.

    "Hurry, bind him with the chains or his power will destroy us all! Hurry!" the powerful voice echoed. And as the voice commanded, chains slammed into my burning flesh, wrapping around me and cutting deep into the skin.

    The pain was agonizing and every chain that touched my skin caused me to cry out in pain, the screams caused the ground to shake, I could feel it as my screams caused the air around me to heat up as if reacting to my pain.

    Chain after chain was thrown around me, 7...8....9...10 chains and the screams of the little voices became more frantic, but I still could not see anything but bright light.

    "How is this possible? 10 chains and he has not fallen! More chains! Hurry! We have to stop him before..." the voice echoed through my screams. However now I could hear another sound. It was faint, so I tried to muffle my cries to listen, but I could not bear the pain. However it sounded like many little feet coming my way.

    "They're coming, hurry more chains!" the voice echoed. 11...12...13...14 chains now but each one just caused me more suffering, but I felt a distinct pull, something, latching onto me, something holding me to the ground, like a string tied to a balloon. 15...16...17 chains now I started to feel more pain with each one, more agonizing a pain than I had ever felt.

    The footsteps were growing louder and louder as did the frantic voices.

    "Sir we have to get out of here or well be killed!"
    "We will bind him or we will die trying is that understood!"
    "Yes, my lord!"

    The voices sounded in unison as 18... 19... 20 chains now were tied around every inch of my body I could feel a pulling, leashing me to the ground as my cries began to break the very ground I stood on. I could feel small pebbles lifting into the air around me as my skin burned like it never had before and all feeling escaped from my body in one massive explosion. As it did I heard the little voices cry out and become silent, and the many footsteps stopped.

    I opened my eyes and could see for the first time.